The present invention relates to a method for effecting selective and optionally reversible cell degeneration in somatic plant tissue. The present invention further relates to plants which display controlled morphological changes as a result of controlled cell degeneration effected while implementing the method and further to nucleic acid expression cassettes for effecting the method.
Ever since the emergence of modem agriculture, cultivated plants have been manipulated in an effort to establish crops with desired traits. Such traits typically include, crop yield and quality, enhanced growth rates and adaptation to various growth conditions.
Various manipulations to crop plants are effected in an effort to produce such desirable traits, the most common of which include exercising optimal growth conditions, pruning, selection of plants with the desired traits and the like. Such manipulations are typically time consuming and tedious to effect, and in addition are also limited in their ability to produce the desirable traits.
As such, more advanced manipulative techniques are often utilized to produce desirable traits in crop plants. Such manipulations include genetic crossing of plants to produce offsprings with favorable traits and directed genetic manipulation of plant genomes, which, with the emergence of recombinant techniques, is rapidly becoming the tool of choice for introducing desirable traits to crop plants.
Such directed genetic manipulation is typically used to confer insect and fungal resistance to plants, to manipulate growth and development, and to manipulate the productivity and quality of the plant derived products.
Since, such manipulation involves the introduction of a specific and specialized gene which is typically effective in a limited variety of plant species, the utilization of such a technique is limited in each case to one or several applicable plant species.
The present invention relates to a method for controlling the morphological development and productivity of crop plants, which method can be applied to a wide variety of plant species. Additional aspects of the present invention will become apparent to those of skills in the art reading the following sections